10. Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me

As much as year-end lists are basically a conglomeration of everything said about an album over a twelve-month period, it would be criminal not to repeat once more the artistic merits of Joanna Newsom. Newsom went from a quirky (bordering on annoying) harpist intent on increasing her listeners’ patience to a well-developed songwriter and accomplished vocalist who learned how to trim the fat from her songs to create a much better product, and from an elfish girl who posed in animal skins to a sexy woman in hot pants and high heels. She has always had ambition, but never has she been as focused as she is on Have One on Me, which overflows with realized potential and the kind of songs we always knew she could write. Perhaps what is most surprising about the album is the fact that, after her grating warble on Ys, the songs on this album go down easy. Yes, like falling asleep. – Channing F.

09. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Halcyon Digest was just how warm everything sounds. Whereas Bradford Cox and company’s earlier work was an unwieldy mess of noise thrown loosely under the shoegaze label, Halcyon Digest continues what 2008’s Microcastle began: transforming Deerhunter into a full-fledged rock band, feet firmly planted in pop territory and beckoning us to just relax and enjoy. It’s not just direct: there’s a depth to these songs that makes Halcyon Digest something more than just a really good rock album. Songs like the self-destructing ‘Desire Lines’ and the gorgeous dream of ‘Helicopter’ sound like the new classic rock, all substance and style without a tipping of the scales one way or the other. Halcyon Digest is Deerhunter’s most deft accomplishment yet, and they’ve done it not with bells or whistles or 20-minute-plus compositions but by writing perfect rock ‘n roll, pure and simple.– Rudy K.

08. Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid

Janelle Monae’s The ArchAndroid is soo much more than just music. If you can excuse the wording inflection, there’s a good reason behind it: it really is. Who, after all, can remember the last time a pop album was executed on such a grand and fantastic scale? We’re talking an r&b concept album, revolving around a messianic robot-like figure, infused with a generous helping of funk, jazz, swing, hip hop, classical. You name it, it’s probably there. And not just it, but them too: Big Boi, Of Montreal, Saul Williams – a guest list as expansive and breathtaking as the ambition itself. Oh and then there’s Monae. Say it slow now: best voice of 2010. But all that aside – because it wasn’t enough already? – what pushes The ArchAndroid over the edge is its enduring freshness. Listening to Monae tread a tightrope of disparate musical influences while pouring her heart into an endeavor she has command of from top to bottom is nothing short of spellbinding. Pop music hasn’t seen anything like this since… ever. – Alex S.

07. Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

Only a few years ago, the much-hyped Speakerboxxx/The Love Below had people wondering whether Outkast were better as a duo or as a unit. Now it seems like the only debate is about who’s the better of the pair. Sure, that’s a mark of how long it’s been since they released a proper album together (it’s an entire decade if you don’t include film scores and compilations), but it’s also a telling reflection of just how brilliant Sir Lucious Left Foot is. There’s no need to argue about whether either member can release an album as good as Aquemini or Stankonia any more: Big Boi’s already done it. For an album of such length, and for an album that broadly stays within mainstream-friendly boundaries, the consistency of Sir Lucious Left Foot is astonishing. Big Boi doesn’t try to do anything unusual or move the artform forward; he’s using the same old tricks as everybody else, but doing it so well that it becomes a sharp reminder of why those tricks were so thrilling in the first place. In a way, the album validates Speakerboxxx and casts a shadow over The Love Below: Big Boi’s had much greater artistic success with sticking to what he’s good at than his partner has with experimenting. Your move, Andre…. – Nick B.

06. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma

To say that the talent of Steven Ellison has grown in leaps and bounds since his 2006 debut, 1983, would be the understatement of the year. While 1983 and Los Angeles were genre-defining, movement-sparking records, Cosmogramma feels like the album Flying Lotus was always destined to make. Subtly weaving a stronger free-jazz influence into his already packed collage of electronic-based music, Ellison has created a record that stretches his sonic and emotional palette considerably. The busy, messy beats are smeared with brilliant instrumental performances from, among others, Thom Yorke (vocals), Ravi Coltrane (tenor sax), Rebekah Raff (harp) and Thundercat (bass), and topped with spacey, intricate synthesiser parts that can only be described as epic. It’s not rare for an electronic-based record to be this overtly passionate; but for it to also be so perfectly consistent, experimental, and expansive means that it cannot be considered anything short of a classic. – Andrew H.

05. The National – High Violet

The National’s albums have each been portraits of growing up and the way that we interact with the world in the process. Alligator portayed the new found freedom of being a teenager and seeing the world as open and accessible for the first time. Boxer showed that same world as a series of carnival fun house mirrors, warped and shrouded in uncertainty and confusion. Now, with High Violet, they’ve documented the paranoia and claustrophobia of life in twenty-first century America. Vocalist Matt Berninger acts as your tour guide through the emotional void of modern existence, documenting the disconnect between people and the society in which they live. But he never loses hope in humanity itself: just when the world is about to swallow him alive there is one force that has the power to pull himself back from the edge of darkness – love. – Adam T.

04. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor

The Monitor is almost too ambitious. It’s always creaking and even cracking a little under the constant pressure and weight of its own lofty ambitions. Because The Monitor was not created to come off as merely another hyped album to you, the listener: it’s meant to be life-defining album, a signifier of what you’re about, of what we’re about; us, those who’ve listened to The Monitor. Those who’ve experienced it. Those who’ve lived it, these lyrics, the keggers and the humiliation and the hatefulness. Those who’ve sung (screamed) along with Patrick Stickles when he says that you, us, everyone, will always be losers. Those who’ve taken those last lyrics from ‘The Battle of Hampton Roads’ to heart. It’s an album that all but forces me to deploy ridiculous amounts of hyperbole, as I’ve thus done, but just to aptly describe what The Monitor does to me (right?). The Monitor means for us to feel this way; thing is, against seemingly insurmountable odds, it succeeds. This is why Titus Andronicus will live on, forever. – Cam

03. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

It’s easy to exaggerate the absurdity of what Sufjan Stevens has done with The Age of Adz. Cast him as the iconoclast – what is structure, what is convention, what is a song – but the ultimate question everyone seemed to ask was: “Has he gone mad?” The evidence, at first glance, seemed to indicate quite overwhelmingly that he’d come unglued, that every inch of him was bursting out onto this empty canvas and painting it with the most surreal sketches of a man not quite losing his mind but more lost in it than we’d ever realize. But to cast him as such a symbol – as distant, untouchable, different, like the age old caricature of a reclusive artist – is unfaithful to the most remarkable thing he achieves.

What shines through the chants, synths and crescendos, is the enormous amount of himself that Sufjan has poured into The Age of Adz and that’s an investment that he has made of his own accord and by his own observation. And, at least to me, that is the sign of a man not lost but rather more in tune with himself than we ever gave him credit for. Most importantly, it is a stunningly personal contribution. And despite the storm and swell of everything around him, it all still rests on the shoulders of our omniscient narrator: the colossal clutter filtered into ideas and themes as human and emotional as anything he wrote while parading as the cherub-voiced folk romantic. For all that has been made of Sufjan Stevens the personality, for every step that has been taken to distance this album as some demented portrait, what must not get lost in translation is just how strikingly intimate The Age of Adz manages to be. – Kiran S.

02. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

A few months ago, I read a review of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy where the author’s main argument was “the only thing that matters is the music.” Ever since, I have been burning to write on the album, because My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is so not a “just-the-music” record. Perhaps more so than any album released in recent memory and certainly more so than any record released in 2010, Dark Twisted Fantasy exemplifies the emerging trend in popular culture for an artist to totally transcend his art, as practically everything on this album is judged not necessarily on its own merits but rather through the omnipresent, awesome lens of Kanye West. And what makes this record vital is that Kanye West, “just a chi-town nigga with a nice flow,” can make himself look like the most interesting person ever.

It’s fitting that Kanye West takes a moment on his album to name-check Michael Jackson, the late King of Pop because with Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye has played us all and is now reigning supreme as the King of Fucking Everything. With MJ’s scepter come MJ-like problems, all of which are artfully and crudely put on display for us to dissect and care about even if we never really cared about the cultural phenomenon of Kanye West. The meme-making business has made Kanye so relevant that one has to wonder if the infamous Katrina telethon and the Taylor Swift fiasco weren’t really meltdowns but genius career moves, a theory that doesn’t seem so far-fetched when you consider that everyone and their mother heard the record that emerged from Kanye’s self-destruction. More importantly, everyone loved it because Dark Twisted Fantasy offers us the Kanye West we’ve always wanted: a Kanye who shows us that underneath all of the legendary braggadocio is a guy who’s just as vulnerable and fucked up as we had suspected. In the end, the only thing about My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that matters is Kanye West, and we have to thank him for it. – Adam D.

01. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

2010 featured more landmark releases than any year in recent memory. All of the albums we listed screamed excellence, invading our eardrums in ways we never thought possible. The album that tops our list, The Wild Hunt, also screams excellence; but whereas Kanye’s excellence is reverberated through Nicki Minaj’s monsters, and Sufjan’s excellence is filtered through auto-tune, Kristian Matsson alone makes the sound on his album. On The Wild Hunt, you will hear only one musician, but remarkably, no song on the album feels stark. Maybe it’s his abrasive, charming voice capable of so many inflections, or maybe it’s his deft fingerpicking or his full, confident strumming. I argue, however, that Matsson’s truest strength is his universality, his ability to transcend himself and speak from a higher plane–indeed, his ability to be The Tallest Man on Earth.

It’s the reason that ‘Kids on the Run’ succeeds as an album closer. Musically, the piano chords drag along, as Matsson pulls himself through the song like he’s dragging a dead horse through a swamp. His voice is more warbly than usual. Hell, the piano isn’t even really in tune, as if he stumbled upon the instrument in some broken down church in Mississippi. In the hands of anyone else, ‘Kids on the Run’ fails, but The Tallest Man on Earth collects himself in the deepest trench to gasp, “Oh, let’s break some hearts.” And the collective heart of hundreds of thousands of listeners breaks, as if on cue.

In places more confident, Matsson is quite simply the greatest songwriter of our generation. ‘King of Spain,’ arguably the best song he’s ever written, flies through its deceptively simple chord progression like a virtuosic masterpiece as Matsson weaves a fantastical tale about desire. But perhaps it was all just to throw in the sly taunt to his critics slapping the “Dylanesque” tag on him, beginning the third verse with, “And I wear my boots of Spanish leather/Oh, while I’m tightening my crown.” (Dylan had a song called ‘Boots of Spanish Leather.’) Dylan is his grounding, the boots on his feet, but Matsson still has the longest legs and the longest spine. He walks on rivers like it’s easier than land, holds glaciers to open flames, and embodies both fire on the mountain and water in the fountain. And for all this, he’ll stay the tallest man in our eyes for 2010. – Tyler F.

of fucking course it was. what. did you think the site was gonna talk about how it loved certain albums all through this year and then come the end put different things on its list? are you fucking retarded

i just don't think my dark twisted fantasy is that good, and whenever i see a positive review of it, it's always "he is showing us his personality! he is an asshole and is showing it! amazing, 5 stars"

Well of course, mainly because it's the lyrics that talk about him, and in a lot of countries they don't understand them and still enjoy the music. c'mon, it was pretty bold and ambitious coming from a mainstream artist like Kanye. and it turned out extremely good

"i just don't think my dark twisted fantasy is that good, and whenever i see a positive review of it, it's always "he is showing us his personality! he is an asshole and is showing it! amazing, 5 stars""

really because whenever i read a review of him sometimes theyll mention that because kanye has an insane personality that has an enormous effect on his music.
but they ALL say how fucking fantastic the music is. guest spots are basically all good. beats are amazing. production quality is amazing. even kanye's rapping is good for a change.

I literally screamed 'FUCK YEAH' when i saw 1, totally love you guys for putting this album on 1. Overall very great list, 2010 was a BADASS year for music, any1 who thinks differently has absolutley no taste. 2010 gave us great albums in any section, even classical music

I think my favourite thing about these lists is that they reflect how the taste of the staff is changing, too. 3 or 4 years ago there was no way these lists would've been as ~indie, but times change and it's good to see that reflected as a result.

This list is fucked not only is Dillinger and Deftones not in the top 10, they had the nerve to put big boi and Joane Newsom ahead?? Then had them below Plastic Beach??? This list did not even have The Contortionist. Who the hell made this list like really?!?!?!

"How Oceansize's 'Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up' was not anywhere in the top 50 is a mystery and a travesty."

No. It. Isn't.

This list doesn't represent the userbase of sputnik. This list represents the taste of a select group of 20 or so users that write on a professional level and contribute to the site's main features. They have their own tastes and these tastes can be very easily understood by simply browsing their ratings or reading their reviews.

You morons need to stop giving a shit about the staff's taste. For example; my list has a bunch of emo and electronic albums that for the most part weren't given a listen by any staffers. Do you see me complaining about "WHY THE FUCK IS SNOWINGS FULL LENGTH NOT ON HERE"? Nah because I realize that this list doesn't represent my tastes. Now stfu.

It's a good top ten, most of these people are just angry because it's not indie enough. Really, if other people have heard of it, it's not good to Sputnik. Honestly Kanye should have been #1, but The Wild Hunt is also amazing. I thought it was a great top 10, better than Pitchforks 10.

Like I said, I don't like hip-hop or anything similar. So there are albums on here that I lumped into the same category the same way someone that hates metal would put Korn, Isis and Dream Theater in the same category without knowing any better.

I just think that some of the fringe hip-hop classic mc's releases are being overlooked in favor for the more accessible ones. well no duh right? But OC and AG's album in 09 puts Big Boi's release to shame.

Plus KRS-One is releasing a new album in the near future, "Return of the Boom Bip", with DJ Premier producing and Q-Tip is assisting/ being featured.

Masta Ace is still releasing new material as well. I just think you guys should get someone like Hydeyomoney, Illmitch, Qwe3, to give you the info on the hip-hop scene. I think I'll start reviewing in the near future.

The list is great in general (and its been said before but how are people surprised by what made it to the top 10?), but it would've been nice to see some more "electronica". Would've liked to have seen how Clubroot would've done had the staff checked it out (or maybe they did and didn't like it, who knows?). Ditto TOKiMONSTA and Phaeleh

Was a little surprised that no one put forth Pariah for the EP section, it did pick up enough staff votes to get BNM

Man this is entertaining. There is so much fail being spewed out by people that the little punctuations of common sense are the most hilarious thing I've read all year. Too many to quote, just too many.

I'm with a couple of the other staff who have said this is not only the most varied Sputnik list we've seen, but it really was as much of a concensus as possible. So congrats to all my fellow colleagues.

Just reading through the blurbs of the top 10, a further congrats to Tyler (of the Fisher variety) for that fantastic closing write-up.

And just on The Tallest Man On Earth, almost every staff member had it somewhere on their list. I can sum it up with a comment of my own that I wrote somewhere: "I don't even like folk, but even I had 'The Wild Hunt' in my Top 20".

Ross, I'm no hip-hop afficianado either, but dabble on the mainstream edge of it (hence why I included Big Boi in my top 20). I can assure you however that Sobhi is regularly updating us on more little known hip-hop releases & will always provide us with info, links, etc...

I actually think the fact that there are 3 hip-hop LPs in the top 15 is a huge representation. Just think about the punk/hardcore fans out there!

Well this has prompted me to finally check out some of the artists. The National seem pretty cool...Titus Andronicus are at least more interesting than Gaslight Anthem but whats with all the fucking american flags.

Ross, I listen to basically every notable underground, old-school, and mainstream hiphop record that is released throughout the year and do my best to keep everyone enlightened... no worries bud.

FYI, Raekwon was our #3 overall last year... Mos Def, Sole, and the UK's Orphans of Cush all made the top 50. I don't think anyone critically dug the OC & AG record; I personally thought it was pretty bland. I hear the new krs is supposed to be good, so yeah I will be listening to that when it the promos drop.

2/10 rap albums here is representation enough. As people of said, the (post-)hardcore and metal are the under-represented shit but also everyone who has a favourite genre of music thinks there should be more doom/IDM/country on the list.

@soby, man really you thought the OC AG release was bland and that Raekwon's release wasn't? OC & AG are both very talented MC's that stayed true to themselves and did what they did best, while being accompanied by some awesome production, better than on Rae's record, just imo. Raekwon suddenly releases a hip-hop album, a Wu-Tang album, which on here gets overhyped like nothing else, and he goes and releases an album that stays true to his roots, yet it's a breath of fresh air and a classic? kind of odd if you ask me.

Yes the OC & AG was very bland, could have been released in 1993 just as easily and definitely doesn't sound like music that should be around in 2009. It had a couple good tracks to start with, but dropped off quickly.

Rae's new record was hyped because it was incredible. Every track is amazing from his rapping to the guests, to the production. House of Flying Daggers is one of the best rap songs ever made. Wu records are not hyped just here; almost any hiphop fan will mention at least one Wu member in their top 5 mcs of all time. There is nothing odd here; the mcs are at their best, and the production is dope. Not much else I can say beyond my 2009 write up and review.

--What gets me is that Sputnik is increasingly a hardcore/metal orientated website (just look at the user reviews) but those genres are massively under-represented when it comes to Staff. --

The issue isn't the site, so much. They have 3 reviewers that are supposed to be the metal representation for the staff... Me, Mike and Tyler.... Mike seems to have fallen into pop hell, Tyler didn't participate, which just leaves me. Problem there is I don't listen to a lot of the same metal as the majority of users, and what metal I did post had just about no chance of making it due to the lack of converging opinion.

I was here 5 years ago but wasn't much of an active member. It seemed to die off a bit a few years ago then when I first started really getting active, and over the last year I've just noticed it getting bigger and bigger. I understand the staff is partly there to provide a source for users to increase their knowledge and taste, but it just doesn't seem to properly mix much.

But i definitely appreciate these lists, after months of doubting it, I finally gave kveltertak a listen, the description totally convinced me and showed me that i had a lot of misconceptions about what i was getting myself into.

Who called Raekwon's new album a "breath of fresh air"? What we liked about it was that it communicated so well with those great Wu classics of yore, rather than attempting to front a "classic Wu vibe" (see: most Wu-Tang albums of last decade). It simply sounds fucking classic.

there's only a handful of metalheads on this site that write up to snuff for staff, there's dozens upon dozens that dig indie that write to that quality though. i would love to see more metal reviewed by staff but unless its some sludge or a big metalcore release i dont see that happening unless its covered by me, coke, trey, or mike.

"hahahahahahahaha kanye west even being on the top 50 is so much fail"

5 classic
All Shall Perish The Price Of Existence
Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Between the Buried and Me Colors
Its funny how people call something a "guitarwankfest" just because they don't musically understand what's going on.

also where the fuck was the staff love for neil young (and to a lesser extent) I at least thought that someone like redsky would have vouched for it enough to get on the top 50. But I guess only me vedder and porch give a fuck about a band that has been around for more than 10 years.

3 is the most consistently good, 10 has some good songs on it. The rest? Meh

Consensus lists will mean that some albums will be pushed higher than on individual lists simply because alot of people put them in their lists. It's like they all agree that an album is ok (maybe they have persuaded each other a bit), but doesn't necessarily mean they think it is one of the very very best.

I just have a hard time realizing this website is not the same as it was in 2006/2007 when I was lurking. There seemed to be a lot more variety back then. I don't know if that's actually true but that's how it felt being here.

Yesssss. Awesome list, as usual. Don't agree with Kanye being placed so high here, but top 10 placements for Flying Lotus and Titus Andronicus kinda compensate for that. Also, a completely suprising (at least for me) but not undeserving #1. And kudos to many of the write-ups.

I need to visit sputnikmusic more often in 2011, these lists always convince that there is no better music site around right now.

Who cares if it's similar to Pitchfork? It''s a staff collaborative list - it's not as if it's one person dickriding Pitchfork. The staff at both sites are gonna have some common tastes, and these lists are gonna be similar when you take into account that quirks in personal taste won't make much of an impact on these lists.

I think the real solution is for more regular users to become consistent good reviewers so they can be appointed to staff and contribute to these lists. Right now the only people who can write well listen to the 50+ albums you guys just wrote about. So spend more time working on writing than complaining.

holy shit i actually just realized uO wasnt on here. that is surprising actually. whole list is missing a few albums i wouldve included but GASP, its not my list. overall i like it. giving age of adz another whirl cause i never even got the whole way through. so happy to see tallest man on earth at 1. motherfucker deserves it. and crowing is still a fucking butthurt retard.

i think its understandable to complain about this list being similar to pitchfork's... its fruitless, of course, but downer is right when he says "i bet if we had a list with nothing but bad metal people would shut the hell up."

people (who say stuff like "this list confirms that sputnik is the pitchfork's bitch") should understand that the staff =/= sputnik... sputnik is very obviously still dryden and KILL and SeaEric and ragging on Hawks and motherfucking EMERY THREAD.

For all of this talk of pitchfork riding/hipster nonsense - even though the user 2010 list will undoubtedly have more diversity (and this is obvious as more users will be involved compared to the 15-20 involved in this), I'd put money on the top 10 being mighty similar to this

"I need to visit sputnikmusic more often in 2011, these lists always convince that there is no better music site around right now.

wut"

there was a 'me' lost somewhere. but yeah, generally speaking I like the sputnikmusic staff lists more than almost all of those end-of-the-year-lists that are always floating around throughout december. similarities to pitchfork are inevitable if you mostly write about pretty much the same area of music, but they're usually the similiarities I can live with, the albums that pitchfork "got right" imo. mostly. I mean, I don't agree with everything here, but with a lot.

The Tallest Man On Earth deserves the number 1 spot - it's just one man and a guitar (and a busted piano) and some great songs both melodically and lyrically. If you don't dig him, fine, his voice is an acquired taste, but you can't blame cheap tricks and the tendencies of other critics for his #1 spot - it's all music :)

Really impressed with Tallest Man getting number 1, it's a glorious thing to see really. I don't think Kanye didn't deserve #2, I think the publicity and hype make it appear better than it is, still definitely top 10 though, likely top 5, I do however understand its placing. Loving 10, 9, 5, 3, and 1. Anyways, great top 10, not what mine exactly looks like, but there are some very critical similarities, which is to say everything that was important to me got the recognition from you guys I thought it deserved. Awesome.

HOOM is just unlistenable. no idea why it keeps being listed as one of the best of the year, other than people feeling that they need to list it in order to look respectable to their peers. too ambitious, nothing that grounds the sound. and goddamn is it fucking long.

great list, just looked now. Didn't follow the year as closely but I was actually delighted by 5's placement and surprised the The Tallest Man got No.1 (he basically deserves it though, just didn't think he'd win it)

Max Richter was good
Oceansize wasn't
Minus the Bear was divisive... I thought it was good but it wasn't necesarily top 50 material for most people
Demians were sorta under the radar
and Olafur Arnalds album was ok, but it's really random I didn't know anyone here had heard it
and Willie's explained the Amia V-Landscape thing a million times already, on this pg. alone

Janelle Monae should've been higher. Also, I could've sworn that Diamond Eyes was going to be the number one album this year based on how long it remained in the "Popular Albums" list. Interesting list overall though, can't say that anything shocked me. Joanna Newsom's inclusion was surprising though, as for the most part she appeared to fly under the radar. However, gotta give her props for ambition.

Except for Kanye this whole top 10 wouldn't even find a way into my paper bin.
I wouldn't even waste any energy download this retarded bullshit.
May seem harsh, but imo 9/10 are total bullshit in this top10.